Make Something Day is a response to Adbuster’s famous Buy Nothing Day, which is itself a response to that high holy day of American consumerism called Black Thursday. Buy Nothing Day resists consumerism with buying nothing. The people behind Make Something Day have a better idea: In response to the over-consumptive habits of western culture, … Read more →
I’m currently reading John Howard Yoder’s seminal The Politics of Jesus, and there are many times when I could have posted excerpts. Yoder discusses how modern ethical theory is obsessed with first defining the meaning of history and then grabbing the right handle to move it in (what we have identified as) the right direction. … Read more →
Going the second mile is a cliché that nobody understands the meaning of. At least, that’s the conclusion that I came to after reading Walter Wink’s interpretation of this saying of Jesus in his book The Powers That Be. I’ve already covered his interpretation of turning the other cheek and giving up your cloak in … Read more →
My last post dealt with Walter Wink’s interpretation of “turning the other cheek” in The Powers That Be. Moving on the the next section, he deals with Mat. 5:40, in which Jesus says “if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.” I must admit, this is … Read more →
In reading Walter Wink’s The Powers That Be, I’m being confronted by a biblical-theological condemnation of all violence and an upholding of nonviolence as the true way of following Jesus. It is clear that Jesus advocated nonviolence in the Sermon on the Mount: You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth … Read more →